ADSL on its last legs in South Africa

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  By   Daniel Puchert Partially state-owned telecommunications company Telkom announced in its financial results for the year ending 31 March 2025 that its ADSL subscribers had more than halved to under 30,000. According to the company’s operational data, ADSL lines decreased from 64,959 in March 2024 to 29,770. This 54.2% decline highlights that the legacy broadband technology is slowly approaching the end of the road. Telkom’s ADSL business peaked at the end of March 2016 with 1.01 million subscribers — two years after fibre upstart Vumatel  broke ground in Parkhurst . What followed was a sharp decline in Telkom ADSL subscribers. Customers connected to its copper networks decreased by more than 500,000 over the next four years. This was partly driven by Telkom itself, which began actively switching off its copper network in some neighbourhoods. If it did not have fibre in the area, it would offer a “fixed line lookalike” wireless service that ran over its cellular ...
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WATCH | Slovakia’s flying car takes to the skies

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  LIFE / MOTORING

NEWS

WATCH | Slovakia’s flying car takes to the skies

Dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle moved closer to production last week with inter city flight

04 JULY 2021 - 21:30 DENIS DROPPA
The AirCar completed a 35-minute flight from Nitra to Bratislava in Slovakia this week. Picture: SUPPLIED
The AirCar completed a 35-minute flight from Nitra to Bratislava in Slovakia this week. Picture: SUPPLIED

AirCar, a dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle moved closer to production last week, fulfilling a key development milestone by completing a 35-minute flight from Nitra to Bratislava in Slovakia.

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The vehicle then folded its wings and drove the rest of its journey.

The hybrid car-aircraft has a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.

Its creator, Stefan Klein, says it can fly about 1,000km, at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m). It takes under three minutes to transform from car into aircraft. When not flying, the wings fold down along the sides of the car.

Slovakian company Klein Vision's prototype AirCar is seen after landing at Bratislava airport. Picture: REUTERS
Slovakian company Klein Vision's prototype AirCar is seen after landing at Bratislava airport. Picture: REUTERS

While flying, the AirCar reaches a cruising speed of 170km/h. It can carry two people, with a combined weight limit of 200kg.

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Klein, who was the pilot, has been developing a flying car since the late 1980s and previously worked for fellow Slovakian company Aeromobil, which is working on a similar flying car. Klein left Aeromobil in 2017 to form his own company, Klein Vision, with his friend Anton Zajac.

Klein’s flying car differs from the drone-like prototypes seen in recent years, which can carry passengers but cannot be driven. The AirCar is a true flying car that can be flown through the air and driven on the road.

“With Aircar you will arrive at your destination without the hassle of getting a ride to airport and passing through commercial security, you can drive your AirCar to the golf course, the office, the mall or your hotel and park it in a normal parking space,” said Zajac.

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Klein Vision is also planning four-seater and amphibious prototypes, but hasn’t confirmed when any of them might go into production.

AirCar, a dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle reaches a key development milestone with a 35-minute flight from the international airport in Nitra to the international airport in Bratislava on June 28 2021.

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